My Friend Don
“I’ve learned that if I write with my heart, it’s not my concern what the person gets out of it but I just allow them the opportunity to see things differently and let what I write speak for itself.”
The Troll and the Prince
You are no longer called a troll but a prince of light. You have known sadness, pain and suffering, hate, and destruction. Now you will know the joy of giving yourself to life.
Meeting a Jury Member Who Voted for My Death: A talk with Donald Dillbeck, 30 years on death row in Florida
Through our correspondence, I was able to see her as a person rather than a perceived enemy, as it would have been so easy to do for someone in my situation. This whole experience wound up being a blessing that I cherish.
Most Valuable Lessons
Dare to show kindness, patience, understanding, and laugh at that which stands in your way because with love and wisdom and willingness, you are far greater than any roadblock. Defiance!
Free Will
Most of our lives are that of sleepwalking. All that nonsense we say about having free will is only half true. We have to first free our will, otherwise we are just unconsciously sleepwalking thinking we are in control.
Freedom Within
A day in the garden was like freedom to my heart… It was so satisfying to sit down to a meal and see the vegetables we grew on our plates. I would always announce to the others with a smile, “I planted and harvested that.”
Desert Tree
The Art of Soulmaking program brought me to a fuller understanding: That “dead” part of the tree is still part of the tree’s life. It is a crucial support for the tree, grounding it more fully, allowing it to flourish.
False Allegations Cancel Nonprofit Programs at Mendocino County Jail
We’ve lost a great partnership, and with a heavy heart we’ll keep moving forward. Continuing to create the world we want to live in is lonely but necessary work. Our mission lives on and the next chapter begins.
Meditation in a County Jail
[M]ostly I drew from my still deeply held conviction that to thrive in the stark and rigid environment of incarceration, one had to have practices to help bring the self to an essential freedom — within.
Seeing Through the Big Door
The garden was now located somewhere inside. A door had opened to something unexpected. Poems can seem like doors, at once both obscuring and revealing, assuring and confounding.
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